ISLAMABAD: In a bid to facilitate local taxpayer importers, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed Pakistan Customs to accept certificate for exemption from income tax on import issued by Gilgit-Baltistan Income Tax Authorities.
The FBR, in circular No. 12 of 2016, said that the exemption certificate should be accepted by Pakistani customs authorities after ensuring that the amount equivalent to tax under Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has been paid by the importer. “Such certificate is to be accompanied by a copy of the challan/computerized payment receipt of the said tax,” the FBR said.
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The FBR said that Gilgit-Baltistan Council Secretariat has conveyed that the taxpayers of Gilgit-Baltistan who import goods are obliged to pay withholding tax under section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, however, they are not allowed credit in respect of the withholding tax at the time of assessment by Gilgit-Baltistan Income Tax Authorities owing to the reason that the tax collected under Section 148 is not transferred to the Gilgit-Baltistan Income Tax Authorities by the Pakistan Income Tax Authorities.
The circular further said that in pursuance of the decisions taken in the meeting of the committee constituted for the resolution of tax issues in Gilgit – Baltistan and for resolution of the issue at hand an amount equivalent to the tax collected under Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 should be deposited by importers of Gilgit-Baltistan in the designated branches of the National Bank of Pakistan in Gilgit-Baltistan which may be treated as proper and valid deposit of tax for the purpose of Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
On the strength of these challan/CPR’s of tax payment, the commissioner of Inland Revenue Gilgit-Baltistan should be empowered to issue a certificate to the effect that the amount due under Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has been paid by the import of Gilgit-Baltistan into a National Bank Branch in Gilgit-Baltistan, it added.
